Mocup is a tiny, adorable remote-controlled robot built from a Lego Mindstorms set with an off-the-shelf Beagleboard computer for a brain and a webcam for an eye. The machine is not fundamentally different from many other RC robots ó except for the fact that its controller operates it from space.

The cat-sized robot can do little more than move around, avoid obstacles, and transmit video. Itís mostly a testbed for communications to help humans in orbit and robots on the surface of a planet work seamlessly together.